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Teachers and students took to the streets in 2017 when Hungarian MPs voted in favor of further restriction of UEC activities.
The University of Central Europe (CEU) in Budapest has threatened to transfer the bulk of its teaching to Vienna if the Hungarian government does not eliminate the legal obstacles to its academic freedom.
Although Viktor Orban's government has targeted the CEU's liberal founder, George Soros, he insists that he wants the US-registered university to stay.
But sources say that she has not honored an agreement on CEU by continuing to issue US accredited diplomas.
The CEU wants an answer before December 1st.
Rector Michael Ignatieff insisted that the UEC would maintain a certain presence in Budapest, no matter what, but that it would transfer most of its teaching to a satellite campus that it would had prepared in the Austrian capital before September 2019.
"If the government thinks it can get rid of us so easily, it is wrong," he told the BBC.
Why is the CEU targeted?
Supported by the European Commission, the US Government, academics and Nobel laureates from around the world, the CEU has 1,400 postgraduate students from more than 100 countries and ranks among the top university ranks in the world.
However, he became a symbol in Hungary of the battle between national and liberal populists.
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The Hungarian Minister of Culture (left) joined George Soros for the opening ceremony of the CEU in January 1995
Prime Minister Viktor Orban declared himself in favor of an "illiberal" society in July 2014 and, in 2015, launched his first personal attacks against Mr. Soros, blaming his liberal views on the flow of refugees. and migrants in Europe.
It was only a matter of time before his Fidesz government attacked the pride and joy of Mr Soros, the University of Central Europe, that 's a matter of time before his Fidesz government attacks the pride and joy of Mr Soros, the University of Central Europe, that he had founded in 1993. Financial and philanthropist of Hungarian origin, Mr. Soros is perceived as the company.
Government measures tighten rules on the university
In April 2017, the Orban government made changes to the law on higher education to make the functioning of the UEC virtually impossible. The government refused to negotiate directly and there was only one face-to-face meeting between university and government representatives.
A government official reached an agreement in September 2017 with representatives of the State of New York, where the university is registered, authorizing the CEU to stay in Budapest as a US-based university. United States issuing diplomas accredited by the United States. But CEU sources say that was not respected.
Since the overwhelming third majority of Mr Orban in the general election of April 2018, the government 's position has further hardened.
In September 2018, the university was informed that there was no agreement to sign. A curriculum for refugees in Hungary and the teaching of gender studies have already been canceled under new laws that expose it to high fines.
US defends the university
Despite President Donald Trump's hostility to George Soros, the new US ambassador David Cornstein said that the survival of the University of Budapest was the cornerstone of US-Hungarian relations.
He is now in contact with the Hungarian government in an ultimate attempt to save the university.
Losing CEU's main campus in Budapest would be a blow to the weakened and divided opposition of the government.
Major critical media were picked up by pro-government oligarchs or were shut down under political pressure from last year.
In May 2018, the Open Society foundations funded by Soros moved their headquarters from Budapest to Berlin, citing "the increasingly repressive political and legal environment" in Hungary.
"In liberal Europe, being European means nothing at all," Orban said in July. "The situation in the West is that there is liberalism, but no democracy."
